April 24, 2014

NY Imam OUTRAGED By 9/11

A New York Imam is outraged by 9/11. Not by the terrorist attacks, but by a museum video that has the audacity to suggest the attacks were carried out by Muslims waging jihad.

A prominent Muslim cleric is ripping the 9/11 Memorial Museum for planning to show visitors a short film on terrorists that will "greatly offend" members of his faith. [...]

After attending a screening of the film - "The Rise of Al Qaeda" - the religious leader objected to how it called the terrorists "Islamists" and described their killer mission as "jihad."

How about greatly offending the victims of 9/11 by whitewashing the ideology of the attackers? Let's hope the museum doesn't cave to this political correctness.

In related news, Sharon Otterman of the New York Times reached out to Robert Spencer for his take on the terminology used in the short video. Spencer wrote:

It is not the museum's job either to indict or exonerate Islam. They should not go out of their way to depict Muslims mourning 9/11, unless it is part of a presentation showing all kinds of people mourning 9/11. The museum's job is to depict the events of 9/11 accurately. That is all. The idea that it has to show Muslims positively in order to offset the effects of showing what happened on that day is as absurd as saying that a museum about the Civil War should have a wing about how nice some Southern slaveowners were to their slaves, to offset anti-Southern feeling arising from the institution of slavery.

As for "militant jihadist" or "militant/radical Islamist," these are absurd formulations that reassure jittery multiculturalists that Islam is really a religion of peace at heart, no matter what jihad terrorists do in the name of Islam. They arise as a response to the quite successful campaign by Islamic supremacist groups such as the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations to tar any opposition to jihad terror as "hate," "bigotry" and even "racism." The museum should call the jihadis of 9/11 what they called themselves: jihadis. Mujahideen. Warriors in the cause of Islam.

Of course, the NYT article does not quote any Spencer's words. In fact, the NYT's article concludes with this ridiculous statement:

"What helps me sleep at night is I believe that the average visitor who comes through this museum will in no way leave this museum with the belief that the religion of Islam is responsible for what happened on 9/11," said [Joseph C.] Daniels, the president of the museum foundation. "We have gone out of the way to tell the truth."

If the museum leaves the impression that Islam was not, in any way, responsible for the events of 9/11, then the museum has failed. It has failed in presenting the truth, it has failed in informing visitors of the facts, and it has failed in honoring those who died as a result of the Islamic terrorist attacks.